Men, Women and Children follows the story of a group of high school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives. The film attempts to stare down social issues such as video game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame hunting, and the proliferation of illicit material on the internet. As each character and each relationship is tested, we are shown the variety of roads people choose – some tragic, some hopeful – as it becomes clear that no one is immune to this enormous social change that has come through our phones, our tablets, and our computers.

Men, Women & Children is an American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman co-written with Erin Cressida Wilson, based on a novel of the same name written by Chad Kultgen. Featuring an ensemble cast, with Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Adam Sandler, Ansel Elgort, and Kaitlyn Dever, the film screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2014. The film opened in limited release on October 1, and expanded on October 10, and had a wide release on October 17.

About the Story

The Voyager Space Probe flies past the planets in our solar system. The narrator explains that the Voyager has gold records filled with international music, pictures and greetings from Earth.

Don and Helen Truby are a married couple stuck in a rut, their attempts at sex leaving them unsatisfied. Their son Chris is the quarterback of the high school’s football team and a porn addict so accustomed to extreme forms of sex that the prospect of normal sex doesn’t excite him. Helen seeks an extra-marital affair through the website Ashley Madison, while Don finds an escort service while looking at porn. Chris has been trying to have sex with cheerleader Hannah Clint, but their first attempt ends in failure when Chris can’t maintain an erection.

Hannah nevertheless tells everyone at school they had sex to save face. Both Don and Helen continue their extra-marital liaisons until Don discovers Helen’s Ashley Madison profile. He follows her to a hotel bar where she’s having one of her dates and orders a drink in front of her to let her know he’s aware of her activities. The following morning, Helen comes home to try and explain herself to Don, who’s trying to make breakfast for her. Don tells her he’s made the same mistakes as her and would rather make her breakfast than discuss the details of their activities.

In addition to cheerleading Hannah is an aspiring actress who maintains a website of provocative photoshoots of herself with the help of her mother Joan, a failed actress determined to help her daughter achieve the life she never had. A reality show comes to their local mall to do auditions for aspiring young starlets and Hannah and Joan jump at the opportunity to sign up.

Hannah gives them headshots and demo reels of her acting, but Joan receives a call from the show’s producers that, despite being impressed with Hannah’s material, they won’t be accepting her due to the provocative photoshoots she’s done which can draw the wrong kind of attention. Joan decides to delete the website and tells Hannah they will pursue an acting career through other means, but Hannah becomes upset and runs away.

Allison Doss is a fellow cheerleader who is on a website that helps with extreme dieting. She becomes attracted to Brandon Lender and has sex with with him one afternoon. Someday later, she collapses on the bathroom floor at school and is rushed to the hospital, where the doctor tells her and her parents that she had an ectopic pregnancy and suffered a miscarriage due to her malnourishment. She tells Brandon about the incident, who tells her not to tell anyone and asks her to come over to his house after the championship game. She goes over to his house only to throw a rock through his window and leave.

Tim Mooney is a former football star who quit the team in the wake of his mother leaving him and his dad Kent to go to California with her new boyfriend. Tim has since become a pariah at school and spends most of his time playing an MMORPG named “Guild Wars”, while having adopted philosophies of Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot and the insignificance of human life in the universe. Tim comes across photos of her mom getting engaged to her boyfriend on Facebook, but when he tells other users on the game, they make lewd comments toward her.

Tim’s mom notices him looking at the photos and blocks him from seeing them. Tim gets into a fight at school with another classmate and is sent to a counselor, who prescribes him anti-depressant medication after hearing Tim’s feelings about human life. Kent, in the meantime, starts a relationship with Joan, but asks to take it slow after she tells him about what she’s done with Hannah. Kent sees the comments on Tim’s game about his mom and promptly cancels his game account and the credit card payments, saying he will rejoin the team next year.